Cape Town, South Africa – Top seeds prevailed on Tuesday at the ITF Young Seniors World Individual Championships in Cape Town, South Africa.
Men’s 35 top Jasper Smit of The Netherlands came good against 14th seed Andrew Tavella of Australia at the Kelvin Grove courts. Smit won 6-1 6-2 in a division where the earlier rounds produced a host of upsets, including the demise of seeds 2-6. As a result, three unseeded players have progressed through to Wednesday’s quarterfinal round.
One of the seeds that stood his ground was 10th seeded Frenchman Steeve Nobelcourt who seems to be improving with every outing. He defeated sixth-seeded Canadian Mathieu Giguere 6-4 6-0.
Nobelcourt said afterwards he is fully acclimatised and feeling good about his chances of reaching the final.
“I’m just looking to play a steady game and try to make my first serves good,” said Nobelcourt. “I know the conditions well enough now and I try to keep mistakes to a minimum. I’m trying to take the point early in the game so that I don’t have to play long rallies.
“I’ve been in Cape Town since last week and I’m always trying to conserve energy for the later games.
In the Women’s 35 division, the quarterfinals were played and top seed, Canada’s Christina Popescu, was fully extended in her 6-3 7-6(9) win over Romania’s Alina Stroiu, the sixth seed.
Marcus Hilpert, of The Netherlands, led the way at the Rondebosch Tennis Courts with a straight-sets 6-3 6-3 win over South Africa’s Harry Anderson in their Men’s 45 third-round clash. The top seed Hilpert will go up against Australia’s Chris O’Mara, the 8th seed in the quarterfinals.
In the Women’s 45 division, the top seed Jurate Hardy of Lithuania perished at the hands of the unseeded Marine Arassus-Texier of France.
Arassus-Texier won 6-3 4-6 7-6(3) and Tuesday’s win was her second over a seed in two days. On Monday, she disposed of Switzerland’s Pascale Johner of Switzerland.
Local interest was centred on the performance of third seed, South Africa’s Jacqueline Booth, who won 6-2 6-3 against Sweden’s Helena Dahlstrom.
Booth has a rather interesting match-up in the quarterfinals against fellow South African Rene Plant who has already toppled two seeds. Plant, a former world tour campaigner is a seasoned campaigner and her clash quarterfinal clash against Booth could produce one of the tournament’s highlights.
Booth has also won through to the later rounds in the doubles and mixed doubles competition, all this while nursing a “sore” arm.
Men’s 40 top seed, Spaniard Roberto Menendez Ferre has won through to the quarterfinals where he goes up against Toby Mitchell, the eighth-seeded Australian. Mitchell has been in superb form in the earlier rounds, making short shrift of the opposition.
Slovenia’s Barbara Mulej, the Women’s 40 top seed, didn’t quite have things her own way against Great Britain’s eight-seeded Candida Reid-Harrop. After a ding-dong battle, Mulej prevailed 6-4 7-6(5).
More trouble could be in store for Mulej in the semifinals where she’s pitted against South African Lisa van der Riet.
The unseeded Van der Riet has been something of a giantkiller, having disposed of the third and fifth seeds in her run up to the semifinals.